Everything is fine. I am not ready to say what happened but I sure would appreciate hearing your horror stories so that mine story feels much less.
Stories about car accidents we’ve been in?
Any sort of sequential bad luck would do. No stories about people getting really hurt, I couldn’t handle that.
Okay, well a few winters ago I was driving back home from Bloomington where I went to university. There was a ton of ice on the roads, but people were still driving fast and like crazy. I thought to myself “Well, I won’t be the one who gets into a wreck, I will drive slowly!” . So, I drove slow the whole way home while all the other cars were blazing around me passing me. The road had a ton of ice on it, so I called my roomates who were about to drive up to bloomington from our hometown, going in the opposite direction as me.
So, when I got around the Plainville area, I called my roomate and said “Be careful driving up here, the roads are really baaaaAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddd… @$@Y)(% @#)%(@Y#% @)#(%&@#% @)357 %% !!! …”.
The moment I got done saying to be careful, my car started fishtailing a bit in the back, then when I tried to remedy that situation, it got worse and my car started spinning like I was on some kind of merry-go-round, but somehow it was defying physics and instead of eventually going off the road, my car just spun around and around and around with north, south, north, south , just blazing in front of my face for about half the length of the cemetery I was passing, and the whole thing was in slow motion. It was like some kind of carnival ride, except even worse. My car was spinning around like a top! I landed in a very very deep ditch , sideways, with my drivers-side door facing the bottom of the ditch, so I had to climb out the passenger door, which was facing towards the sky! I realised I didn’t have my jeep cherokee in the 4-wheel drive mode, otherwise this would not have happened!
I got out and tried to flag people down for help, as I couldn’t find my phone that was in my hands while that happened. At least 15 cars passed, and not one of them stopped. I searched for my phone for a long time,and finally found it. I had to wait out in the snow forever for a tow truck, because three other wrecks had just happened barely north of there. I am sure at least one of them must have been one of the people who drove past me and wouldn’t stop to help!
Anyway, my car was totalled. I also heard from my friend that I apparently was making some very unusual noises while my car was spinning around. Since that happened I never drive on the highway if there is any slight chance that there is ice on the road. If it’s snowing, I simply won’t drive, even if there is likely no ice on the road. I’m phobic of any little chance there could be any whatsoever!
Well, that’s the only major wreck I’ve had. Two of my other wrecks involved me being stopped at a stop sign, and a person sliding on the ice and running into the back of my car! Always good to be careful when there is ice about!
You said no stories about people getting hurt, so I won’t tell the one about my dad’s relative who got his thumb bit completely off by a turtle.
I presume it was a snapping turtle. I always give them as wide a berth as possible. I run on a trail where I come upon a snapper every so often. It’s really unnerving to have to swerve amidpace, especially when it’s the big one, which is over a foot across, with a set of jaws probably 3" across.
I won’t remark on using a phone while driving in an ice storm.
I came home several weeks ago to find a large limb, really 1/3 of a tree on the roof of my wife’s car. Fortunately the insurance process was really quick, and we had a new car in five days. OTOH, we’re still in the final stages of negotiations with our homeowners’ insurance and have only done emergency repairs to the house.
Major misconception. 4WD is only of any real help in getting through or out of such conditions as heavy snow, slush, sand, or mud with better control and power; think of having four legs instead of two. It’s also of great use when you’re pulling someone else out of a ditch so long as the ground under your tires isn’t icy, in which case you must put sand on the ice to get traction. You my be afforded some negligible amount of extra purchase on untreated ice while driving, but 4WD does NOT stop you from spinning out on untreated ice once that process is set in motion. The only sure things you can hope to depend on for good control on ice are tire studs or chains, and I don’t know about your state, but Minnesota for one doesn’t allow those any more; they chew up the road. An ABS system will keep you from spinning out, but you have to not be spinning in the first place, and on not too great an incline where yaw may set in no matter what. In all conditions - with or without ABS, spinning or not - you will keep sliding until friction finally overtakes your momentum and stops you, but at least in ideal conditions using ABS you’ll slide forward in a straight line, which is a preferable situation to a spinout. And while we’re on that topic, braking with ABS will NOT stop you sooner on ice than braking without it, at least to any degree enough so that it would matter. Don’t get me wrong; 4WD and ABS are great things to have and I definitely recommend them because they are very worthwhile safety features, but you have to keep simple physics in mind, too. Without chains or studs, the best approach on ice is to slow the heck down.
Trust me on this. My family ran an auto dealership/service garage for 30 years - a brother is still in that profession - and it’s been our business to know what this stuff can and cannot do.
Why not? I was going to. 
My wife had a crazy accident just a few weeks ago. She was going about 65 on the freeway, she hit the center divider, flew up in the air, rolled three times, then slid down the freeway upside down. One wheel was ripped off, every window was smashed out, and the body was crushed all over. Aside from not having the accident in the first place, I don’t know how we could feel more lucky… She was able to walk away from it. When the roof was smashed in, it hit her head. She had to go to the hospital for an MRI, but she checked out alright, and she feels fine now (she did have a headache for a few days). She had just dropped our kids off at a friend’s house. And the insurance was quick (and gave us nearly double the blue book value). Very lucky all around.
mutie, you could revisit this blast from the past:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/a-bad-start-to-a-long-weekend/39768/1
RIP, CAR (1995-2006):
BTW, I have had another wreck involving someone turning left through a gap in traffic. This time it was much slower and less damaging, but seriously, stop doing that people.
Never, ever, endorse the check until you are at the Teller’s window.
Yeah, why did I do that?